George Morton (c1585-1624)
}} Biography George Morton was one of the Leiden Pilgrims and was in close correspondence with the first pilgrims living in Plymouth Colony. He is most know helping publish the first history of the pilgrims in London as early as 1622. In 1623 he took his family to join them in New England in 1623. Some sources say he traveled on the [[List of Anne 1623 passengers to Plymouth| Anne]] and others say he was on the [[Little James 1623 voyage| Little James]]. Other traditions point out that his youngest son Ephraim was born during the ocean crossing. George died less than a year after his arrival (1624). 1623 Voyage on Little James He was a passenger on the English ship [[Little James 1623 voyage| Little James]], which sailed from London in April, 1623, bound for Plymouth Colony. The ship was one of two to arrive safely that year and would remain in local waters to help with fishing and other chores. The Little James had two young men in charge – Master John Bridges, master mariner, and a novice Captain, Emmanuel Altham, a Merchant Adventurer. Mort's Relations History of Plymouth George Morton is historically famous to Plymouth Colony by being revealed as the author (possibly with William Bradford (1590-1657) and Edward Winslow (1595-1655)) of Mourt’s Relations, a manuscript of life and times from the earliest colony days, published in England in 1622. 1660 Memorial from Nathaniel Son Nathaniel published a tribute to his father in New-England's Memorial (Cambridge, N.E. 1669, page 48): "Mr. George Morton was a pious gracious Servant of God, and very faithful in whatsoever publick Imployment he was betrusted withall, and an unfeigned well-willier, & according to his Sphere and Condition, a sutable Promoter of the Common Good and Growth of the Plantation of New Plimouth labouring to do the Difficulties that sometimes would arise amongst some spirits, by occasion of the Difficulties of their new beginnings; it pleased God to put a period to his dayes soon after his arrival in New England not surviving a full year after his coming ashore. With much comfort and peace he fell asleep in the Lord in the month of June, Anno 1624." Marriage and Family Morton was of York or Nottinghamshire in the north of England. He married Juliann Carpenter, then about twenty-five, in Leiden on July 22, 1612. She was the eldest of the five daughters of Alexander Carpenter of Wrington, co. Somerset in England and of Leiden in Holland. Juliann’s sister Alice Carpenter (1583-1670) was on the ship accompanying the Anne, the little James. She came as a widow but soon married Governor Bradford. The Thomas Morton who came over on the Fortune in 1621 may have been his brother with the Thomas Morton Jr. who came on the Ann possibly being Thomas’s son and George’s nephew. Morton died in June 1624, about a year after arriving in Plymouth. In the 1627 Division of the Cattle, the Morton children are listed with his wife Juliann now listed under her second husband’s surname as “Julian Kempton” (Stratton). References * George Morton (c1585-1624)/list of notable descendants * Wikipedia: George Morton (Pilgrim Father) * Wikipedia: Passengers of the Anne and Little James 1623